Appleton

"APPLETON, a parish in the hundred of Ock, in the county of Berks, 5 miles to the N.W. of Abingdon, and 7 miles S.W. of Oxford. It lies on the borders of Oxfordshire, from which it is separated by the river Thames which bounds it on the W. The parish contains the township of Eaton. The living is a the diocese of Oxford, value £307, in the patronage of the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. The church, which contains monuments of the Fettyplaces, who once held the manor, and a brass of the year 1518, is dedicated to St. Lawrence. There is a free school endowed by Sir R. Fettyplace in the reign of James I., the income of which is now £16. The charities of the parish, including the free school, amount to about £50 per annum. The manor-house of Appleton, near the church, is a remarkable mansion of very great antiquity; parts of it are thought to belong to the reign of Henry II. It was formerly surrounded by a moat, part of which has lately been filled up. Appleton is the birthplace of the physician and chemist Dr. Edmund Dickinson (1624), who was author of a book on the origin of the heathen mythologies."

"EATON, a township in the parish of Appleton, hundred of Ock, county Berks, 4 miles S.W. of Oxford, and 6 N.W. of Abingdon."

From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland(1868). Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003

Other descriptions can be found from other periods in various trade directories covering Berkshire from the early 19th century onwards from Berkshire FHS (members only) and from A Vision of Britain Through Time.